College and Research Libraries


Resources Handbook 
A Handbook of American Library Resources, 

2d ed. By William Vernon Jackson. Cham-
paign, Ill.: Distributed by the Illinois 
Union Bookstore, 1962. 88p. $ 3.25. 

This paperbound, lithoprinted revision of 
a compilation first issued in 1955 is designed 
to provide supplementary data to be used in 
connection with a course in resources of 
American libraries which has been taught at 
the Graduate School of Library Science of 
the University of Illinois since 1945. The 
data were mostly copied or adapted from a 
great variety of widely sca ttered sources. 

The compilation does bring together a 
considerable amount of interesting statistical 
information dealing principally with aspects 
of higher education, library finance, library 
growth, and library cooperation. Having 
such data pruned, brought up to date, and 
augmented should prove useful to library 
school instructors and students. The fifty-
three statistical tables and six figures are of 
the World-Almanac type, that is, they are 
presented without interpretation or indica-
tion as to why they have been selected. It 
might have been useful to group the tables 
under broad subheadings indicative of the 
structure of the course content. Such a 
structure is revealed by the broad classifi-
cation of the selective bibliography of 407 
items, which forms Part II of the compila-
tion. Both the tables and the bibliography 
appear to have been carefully and conscien-
tiously prepared. However, terse critical an-
notations would have enhanced the value of 
the bibliography. 

The term "Handbook" in the title of the 
publication may lead some prospective users 
to expect more substantive information on 
American library resources than they will 
find in statistical tables of expenditures, 
number of acquisitions, distribution of book 
stocks, or cost estimates for union catalogs. 
One might expect, for instance, descriptions 
of subject concentration or dispersion among 
libraries. The preface makes it clear that 
Professor Jackson had no such aims in mind, 
except to provide general bibliographic 

Review Articles 

pointers to the relevant literature. The com-
pilation might have been more accurately 
and more modestly entitled "Statistics and 
References Relating to American Library 
Resources." 

Some of the impressions gained in perus-
ing the booklet are (1) that research librar-
ies vary greatly in holdings, rate of growth, 
allocation of funds , etc.; (2) that the rela-
tive position of different libraries with re-
gard to these aspects can change substantial-
ly over a period of years; (3) that coopera-
tive efforts among research libraries have 
progressed to some extent but have a long 
way yet to go; and (4) that American li-
brary resources are quite unevenly distribut-
ed.-Robert Muller, University of Mi chigan 
Libraries. 

Chinese Beginnings 
Written on Bamboo and Silk; the Beginnings 

of Chinese Books and Inscriptions. By 
Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien. Chicago: The Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1962. 233p. (The 
University of Chicago Studies in Library 
Science) $7.50. 

Mr. Tsien, associate professor of Chinese 
and librarian of the Far Eastern library of 
the University of Chicago, has drawn on ar-
chaeological evidence buttressed by the criti-
cal use of ancient literature in the prepara-
tion of Written on Bamboo and Silk, a study 
of Chinese writing from its beginnings to 
700. The emphasis is on the nature of the 
materials and their appearance. There is a 
chapter on the fluids and tools used in writ-
ing. Mr. Tsien also discusses the quantity of 
the writings preserved, the types of records 
on the various materials, and their uses in 
the study of Chinese civilization and the de-
velopment of Chinese characters. 

Religious inscriptions on bones and tor-
toise shells are the earliest surviving Chinese 
writings. Large numbers of them from the 
period between 1400 and, roughly, 1150 B.c. 
have been found. During the succeeding 
Chou dynasty (1122?-256 B.c.) inscriptions 
on bronze predominate. The most interest-
ing as well as the longest of the bronze in-

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